This is the AI era in a nutshell. Squint one way, and you can portray it as the saving grace of the world economy. Look at it more closely, and it’s a ticking time bomb lodged in the global financial system. The conversation is always polarized. Keep the faith. -...

Major changes of all kinds are undoubtedly coming in our future, but they won’t arrive with a firework display or a Hans Zimmer score. They’re much more likely to creep in over time and pile up against all the stuff that currently fills our lives. - The New York Times

“Slocum first threw this party on April Fools’ Day in 1978; just 10 people gathered in the living room of his Beverly Hills home.” Now, with more than 500 people, “The destination moves on a three-year cycle among the United States, Europe and Asia.” - The New York Times

And on confronting the ways that media that appeal to anyone over 35 (OK, sure, that’s “older”) don’t deal in any serious way with something that occupies many, many people’s time. - The Verge (Internet Archive)

The fact that social reading goes beyond the individual requires an astute consideration of digital community, because “interactions and bonds between individuals meeting via digital media can occur in different ways.” - PublicBooks

You might think of Google as a search company, but 80 percent of its quarter-trillion-dollar annual revenue comes from ads—both hosting them and placing them throughout the internet. And a big part of what makes Google the most profitable advertising company in the world is that it knows a lot about...

Attorneys for Shira Perlmutter, who is suing the Trump administration for what she argues is her illegal dismissal as U.S. Register of Copyrights, said in a memorandum that “the dots are not difficult to connect” between her office’s report on AI training, her firing the following day, and the administration’s new AI policy. - Publishers Weekly

Oklahoma’s public education superintendent, Ryan Walters, told USA Today and CNN that the 50-question certification exam – which is reportedly set to roll out in the coming days – will ask about topics such as the “biological differences between males and females”, freedom of religion and US history. - The Guardian

Three years later, the AI transformation is just about complete. By the spring of 2024, almost two-thirds of Harvard undergrads were drawing on the tool at least once a week. In a British survey of full-time undergraduates from December, 92 percent reported using AI in some fashion. - The Atlantic

“We hoped to convince them that their paradigm was inhumane and had to change. The housing had to be more robust and more thoughtful about the quality of space and how it can heal.” - The New York Times

"I believe in the power of offering Indigenous people opportunity and space for investigation — both personal and communal. I believe in the power of collective strength to lift the voice of our people, to claim our rightful position as leaders of creativity and aesthetic expression.” - Hyperallergic

The Irish author writes, “If this makes me a supporter of terror under UK law, so be it.” - BBC

The ability to create lyrics in five seconds, and you can keep refining these things. Oh, I don't like the second version. Can you rewrite this? This is just, there's never been anything like this. And then the fact that you can use it in so many different ways. - WBUR

Rod Sims has departed as chair of Opera Australia after three years, a decision both he and the company said was voluntary despite an extraordinary swipe at his leadership style by a former chief executive. - Australian Financial Review

“Musicians routinely wrestle with interpreting oblique, ambiguous and outright surreal markings as they try to bring a composer’s idea to life” — from Satie’s direction “light as an egg” to the poetic instructions of Anna Thorvaldsdottir to the  circular staves of George Crumb and beyond. - The New York Times

The secret to the sound isn’t merely Steinway’s skilled craftsmen but the specialized wood they use for the soundboards. It comes from the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, and it gives Steinway pianos the highest quality of tone, pitch, clarity and consistency. Unfortunately, a broken promise from the federal government will soon stop the...

Then there was the email, which Fergus McCreadie also thought was spam. "Eventually I think my manager was like 'maybe we should just check in case it is real' and it turned out it was real.” - BBC

“I know after this program that when I walk into an audition room with other Americans, or people from different countries than Germany, that my German is going to be so well-tuned that I will have an advantage.” - NPR

The Kiruna Kyrka, weighing 672 tons and made mostly of red-stained timber, has been elevated onto rolling platforms and is lumbering its way across its hometown in the Swedish Arctic. Kiruna is the site of a major iron mine which has weakened the ground under downtown, which is being relocated. - BBC (MSN)

As the 230-foot-long, 950-year-old embroidered cloth is returned to England for the first time since it was completed, here’s an explainer with all the basic facts — when and where it’s from, what it depicts, why it’s important — that you once learned in history class and perhaps have forgotten. - Artnet

In cities like New York and Los Angeles, dedicated spaces that once buzzed with foot traffic and formal openings are now struggling with rising rents and changing expectations. The old model, where a gallery does everything for its artists, feels like it’s falling apart. - Hyperallergic

Across the state and the country, this and thousands of other brightly painted street crossings would be paved over under guidance recently issued by the administrations of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and President Donald Trump. The dual directives call for the erasure of “asphalt art.” - Washington Post

With high-end sales softening and galleries shuttering, mega-galleries are looking downmarket, encroaching on price points once dominated by younger dealers. The result? A reshuffling of the traditional artist career arc, as big players chase younger talent and collectors prioritize long-term gallery relationships over buzzy names and six-figure price tags. - Artnet

“Having survived 9-11, the Covid pandemic, the 2008 financial crash and the 2021 protests that led to the resignation of chairman Leon Black over his connections with Jeffrey Epstein, it’s difficult to imagine another person who could have successfully weathered so many storms.” - El País English

There are book carts organized by United Airlines in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Virginia and more; Little Free Libraries in Seattle and Providence, Rhode Island, and “Flybrary” shelves in Punta Gorda, Florida, Traverse City, Michigan, and Redmond, Oregon. - Washington Post

US public schools still require that kids be taught handwriting, so it’s not yet a lost art, but there is some evidence that digital natives are less “ready” for writing now than students in the past. - Wired

The lawsuit was brought by some of the nation's largest book publishers and some of the authors whose books had been removed from central Florida school libraries, as well as the parents of schoolchildren who tried to access books that were removed. - Scripps

The standard 800-word, single-title review has long been an anemic, disparaged creature surviving off scraps along the edges of the features pages. - Washington Post

Organizers have decided to “pause” the Polari Prizes after multiple nominees and two judges withdrew in objection to the inclusion on the longlist of the novel Earth by John Boyne, who once wrote an article supporting the controversial views on transsexuality of J.K. Rowling. - BBC (MSN)

“Skibidi”, “tradwife” and “delulu” are among the new words to have made this year’s Cambridge Dictionary in a selection that confirms the increasing influence of the TikTok generation on the English language. - The Guardian